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The Courtauld Gallery

  • Art
  • Aldwych
  • Recommended
  1. The Courtauld Gallery
    The Courtauld Gallery
  2. The Courtauld Gallery
    The Courtauld Gallery
  3. Photographer
    David LeveneThe Courtauld Gallery. Photograph by David Levene. 5/11/21
  4. Photographer
    David LeveneThe Courtauld Gallery. Photograph by David Levene. 5/11/21
  5. The Courtauld Gallery
    The Courtauld Gallery
  6. The Courtauld Gallery
    The Courtauld Gallery
  7. The Courtauld Gallery
    The Courtauld GalleryThe Courtauld Gallery
  8. The Courtauld Gallery
    Alastair FyfeThe Courtauld Gallery
  9. The Courtauld Gallery
    benedict johnson
  10. Photographer
    David LeveneThe Courtauld Gallery. Photograph by David Levene. 5/11/21
  11. Photographer
    David LeveneThe Courtauld Gallery. Photograph by David Levene. 5/11/21
  12. Photographer
    David LeveneThe Courtauld Gallery. Photograph by David Levene. 5/11/21
  13. Photographer
    David LeveneThe Courtauld Gallery. Photograph by David Levene. 5/11/21
  14. Photographer
    David LeveneThe Courtauld Gallery. Photograph by David Levene. 5/11/21
  15. The Courtauld Gallery
    The Courtauld Gallery
Experience Claudette Johnson: Presence, a major exhibition by one of the founding members of the Black British Arts Movement. Until 14 Jan.
- The Courtauld Gallery

Time Out says

There’s certainly some serious pedigree to this exceptional gallery, located since 1989 within the enviable setting of Somerset House, on the Strand. It’s part of the Courtauld Institute of Art (itself connected to the University of London), and has been showcasing world-class art since the 1930s. It’s now home to more than 500 paintings, and a further 26,000 prints and drawings. 

The artwork ranges from the Middle Ages all the way through to 20th-century masterpieces. Highlights include three from van Gogh (including Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear), as well as works from Gainsborough, van Dyck, Rubens, Degas, Monet, Goya and Botticelli. Quite the collection, then.

Alongside this exceptional permanent collection, the gallery runs hugely popular exhibitions showcasing their curatorial expertise. Make sure you check out The Courtauld Lates if you can – a cracking-looking series of events featuring after-hours art, cocktails and music, with a setting quite unlike anywhere else. Highly recommended.

The Courtauld Gallery says
The Courtauld Gallery is home to one of the world's greatest art collections, located in the magnificent historical setting of Somerset House in Central London.

The Courtauld’s vast collection includes paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture and decorative arts ranging from the Renaissance through to the 20th century.

The gallery is renowned for its remarkable group of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art works, including the world-famous A Bar at the Folies Bergère by Édouard Manet, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear by Vincent van Gogh and the most significant collection of works by Paul Cézanne in the UK. Other artists on display include Degas, Gauguin, Monet and Seurat.

The Blavatnik Fine Rooms provide a stunning setting for showcasing Botticelli’s large-scale The Trinity With Saints and The Courtauld’s celebrated collection of works by Peter Paul Rubens, and more.

There are also galleries dedicated to paintings and decorative arts from the Medieval and Early Renaissance periods, 20th century art and the Bloomsbury Group.

Alongside its permanent collection, the Gallery hosts critically acclaimed temporary exhibitions. The latest exhibition Claudette Johnson: Presence is open until 14 Jan 2023. A founding member of the Black British Arts Movement, Claudette Johnson is considered one of the most significant figurative artists of her generation.

Exhibitions by Frank Auerbach, Roger Mayne and Claude Monet will go on display at The Courtauld Gallery in 2024.

Details

Address:
Somerset House
The Strand
London
WC2R 0RN
Transport:
Tube: Temple
Price:
Weekday tickets £10 / Weekend tickets £12, Free to Friends of The Courtauld, under-18s, full-time UK students, teachers and with National Art Pass. Temporary exhibitions have an additional fee.
Opening hours:
Daily 10am-6pm (last adm 5.15pm).
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What’s on

Claudette Johnson: ‘Presence’

  • 4 out of 5 stars

It’s rare that the title of an exhibition carries as much weight as this. But with her show of paintings of Black figures, Claudette Johnson is giving space to features, bodies and figures that have historically existed only on the margins of art. Here, at the Courtauld, surrounded by Renoirs and Manets and Cezannes, Blackness is present. She set her stall out early on in her career, coming to relative prominence as part of the BLK Art Group alongside Keith Piper and Eddie Chambers, announcing herself with paintings of Black people (both real and imaginary) that are far too big for the paper they’re painted on. They burst out at the top and sides of the picture plane, their presence too large to contain. The earliest works here, from her student days in the early 80s, are both soft and defiant. The figures hold relaxed poses in fuzzy fabrics, but their faces are nothing but full-frontal confrontation: lips set, eyes hard, daring you to say they don’t belong in a gallery context. They’re not brilliant paintings, but they make their point brilliantly. They make their point brilliantly By 1990, her approach changes and matures. The figures are still too big for their paper, but now the dark pastels are dappled, smudged, more minimal and spare, there’s more blankness, more attention to the texture of skin. Her more recent work is by far her best, full of space and pictorial cleverness, neatly composed with figures set against big planes of blue or yellow or vast fields of white.